Gourmet Food, Recipes, & Inspiration

Does anyone else have a case of the ‘Mondays’? It’s not that bad, just trying to get going this morning. Overall it was a good weekend. Heidi took our daughter (Saffron) back to school shopping. The stuff they have to buy for school supplies is comical. Four large erasers? I don’t think I’ve ever used half of one in my entire life. Oh well, you just buy them and move on.

Our local farmers market had some more great produce on Friday. I picked up some more tomatoes and some beautiful yellow squash. Heidi bought four fresh whole chickens from our local Amish. I spent half the day on Saturday getting these ready for the freezer. I deboned three of them so they would be ready to be stuffed and broke the other one down into quarters, breast, and wings.

The first time I attempted to debone a whole chicken was just before last Thanksgiving. I was practicing on a chicken before I tried it on our Thanksgiving turkey. There is a great how to video from Chef John at http://foodwishes.blogspot.com/. You can find the video here. Chef John is my favorite online teacher and blogger. Please check him out!

So I have a deboned chicken. Now what? Well I had some broccoli from the farmers market that I needed to use. I was craving some broccoli and cheddar cheese. I thought some wild rice would pair well with the broccoli and cheese. I blanched the broccoli first. All that means is that I threw the broccoli in some salted boiling water for about two and a half minutes. then transferred them to a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking. I did this for two reasons. The first is that the blanching brings out the brilliant green color of the broccoli. The second is that I knew with the broccoli being in the center of the rolled up chicken it would not get cooked for very long. I wanted the internal temperature of the chicken to be 160 degrees so the broccoli would be a few degrees below that.

I followed the cooking instructions on the package for the wild rice. After the chicken was deboned I laid it out on my cutting board. I put a layer of wild rice down the center from the breast meat to the leg meat. Then I placed pieces of broccoli on top the rice all the way down. Then I cut the cheddar cheese into 3/8 of an inch slices and laid those down on top the broccoli. I brought one side of the chicken up and over the filling. Then brought the other side up and over the first side to form a roll. I cut six pieces of butchers twine about 14 inches long and slid those under the chicken about an inch and a half apart from each other. Then tied them around the chicken.

I heated my grill to 400 degrees and placed the chicken on my grill shelf. It took about 50 minutes to reach an internal temperature of 160 degrees. I flipped it once during the cooking time. Make sure you let it rest for 10-15 minutes before slicing it. This way the juices won’t spill out all over and the chicken will stay juicy.

Cook the wild rice according to the package instructions and let cool to room temperature.

Boil a pot of water with ½ tablespoon of salt. Cook the broccoli for 2½ minutes then place in a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking. When cool, drain and pat dry with a paper towel.

Place deboned chicken on a plastic cutting board skin side down. Season with half the salt, pepper, and cajun seasoning.

Place wild rice down the center of the chicken in a 2 inch wide path from the breast side to leg side. Place the broccoli on top the rice. Cut cheese ⅜ of an inch thick and place on top of the broccoli.

Bring one side of the chicken up and over the filling. Bring the other side up and over the first side and form a roll with your hands. You might need to tuck different parts and pieces in, to make a nice roll.

Cut 6 pieces of twine 14 inches long. Slide these under the chicken spaced evenly and tie them around the chicken snug.

coat outside with olive oil and remainder of the salt, pepper, and cajun seasoning.

Place on your grill shelf if you have one, if not place on the coolest part of your grill.

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About Roux and Me

My name is Steve Tudhope. I am a web designer, graphic designer, and amateur photographer. My favorite hobby is cooking. The thing I am best at is cooking. So when you put all those things together it points to one thing...Food Blogger.